Posted on 08/17/2011 11:17:55 AM PDT by NYer
ROCKVILLE, MD, August 16, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) — The astonishing story of a Maryland family with 11 children, ranging in age from 1 to 12, has been featured in a back-to-school piece by the Washington Post Newspaper. The August 10 story chronicles the Kilmer household's day-to-day life and details how they manage to stay lighthearted and have fun while balancing what some might consider an impossibly difficult lifestyle.
Read the Washington Post story here.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews (LSN), Larry Kilmer, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, said he viewed speaking with the Post about his family as "an opportunity to show that large families can exist and survive in the Washington area."
"It was a chance for others to see that with some sacrifices it can be done," he said. "Despite the fear that 'you cannot survive,' we wanted to show that it is possible."
The article introduces readers to Larry, a high school teacher, and his wife Jen, a stay-at-home mom, as well as children Christina, Joe, Michelle, Julie, Tommy, Steven, Matthew, John Paul, Larry, Rosemary, and Peter, none of whom are twins or triplets.
The feature chronicles the Kilmer family's daily life, from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. It notes the many challenges the family faces, but also highlights the many blessings, including the tight friendships shared by the children and the role that the "rock of Faith" plays in the Kilmer household.
"A large family helps to instill in a person many of the strong values and virtues that a society needs in order to survive and continue," Kilmer told LifeSiteNews.com. "In my opinion, the issue of putting others first is at the heart of a large family as you work and exist with other human beings in a close-knit environment."
Commenting on the Washington Post story, Jenn Giroux, founder of Speaking of Motherhood, who is also the mother of a large family, told LSN, "This is an incredible and fair portrayal of this beautiful large family. It is rare to get this perspective from a liberal media outlet."
"Large families have a positive impact on society," Giroux said. "At a time when our national birthrate is dangerously low, large families are producing the future workers that will sustain the elderly in the very near future… They are raising the next generation of Church and political leaders."
"At the heart of large families is the surrender to God’s supreme rights over our lives and an embrace and love of His gift of children," she said. "Unfortunately, this is a foreign and/or unknown concept that has been gradually lost over the last 50 years."
"It requires ‘blind trust’ in God in times of difficulty," Giroux said. "This is a difficult concept for a contracepting society where those today seek to control everything from the day they conceive to sometimes the very sex of their baby."
Read the Washington Post story here.
The “hate large families” attitude is unsavory.
No one hates large families. Most of us just don’t want to pay for someone else’s family that they can’t afford. I’ve raised 4 kids, and I’ve never taken a dime in public assistance. Is that honestly too much to ask from everyone else?
I don't think they hate large families as much as they see it as a missed opportunity to kill babies.
I read the article before posting my pingout, then after your stating that they artfully dodged the public assistance questions I read it again. I don’t see a specific Q and A part, where is it? This is what the article says about money, didn’t see any artful dodging here. Is there another place with Q and A?
The biggest challenge, however, is money.
The day-to-day expenses for a family of 13 can be staggering. The Kilmers’ grocery bills alone run about $300 per week. Add a mortgage, car payments, medical bills and home and auto repairs and the cost of Catholic school, and it’s not surprising that some months they find it difficult to make ends meet.
“We don’t have a college plan for tomorrow,” says Jen, “because we’re trying to pay for the groceries today.”
To supplement his teaching income during the summer, Larry runs week-long sports camps and paints houses.
Jen is careful about spending, cuts coupons and find ways to work with what they have.
Yes, page 3 of the article ends with a link to submit a question. The time to submit a question is over, but click the link anyway you’ll be taken to the Q and A session.
Not that she’s not denying taking public assistance in your paste. Like I said, if they aren’t on the dole, more power to them. I’m just thinking otherwise.
Comclusion-jumping seems to be a favored sport around here.
We’re about to have our sixth child, live on well below a $100K salary and I stay at home to teach the kids. We have NEVER taken any government assistance even though we’ve qualified a few times. When money gets tight we become more frugal. Our lifestyle is not popular with the materialistic, must have the latest fad crowd but we’re a happy bunch. You are implying that this family gets help based on nothing but your own opinion.
Unbelievable the attitude of some people. What prideful arrogance to suggest a happily married catholic couple ought to deny life to a child of God simply pout of monetary convenience.
Perhaps they ought to consult the Bible. Jesus multiplied the loaves & fishes for the faithful; God always provides for those who do His will.
I'll be happy for my children to sustain me when I'm elderly!
Use a condom or avoid intercourse, and neither will ever be a problem.
No one hates large families. Most of us just don’t want to pay for someone else’s family that they can’t afford. I’ve raised 4 kids, and I’ve never taken a dime in public assistance. Is that honestly too much to ask from everyone else?—————
And if they do live without that ‘public assistance’ a neighbor complains and Department of children services show up and take the kids away....because those braying the most about ‘paying’ for others are the first to complain about the ‘poor’s’ living standards...
Just look at the posts on this board. Without an iota of proof, most jump to the conclusion they are receiving this, that and the other.
Have you ever filed for taxes- by law, and then refused what the law said????
Imagine that.
It’s actually easier to raise good kids in a large family with tight means.
The kids have to grow up responsible. They don’t get indulged to death with material stuff. They don’t grow up thinking that they are the center of the universe or that the world owes them a living.
Parents have to use the ‘No’ word often to prevent absolute pandemonium.
Kids will know how to cook, how to do laundry and how to budget before they are out of high school.
They will also learn the difference between a ‘want’ and a ‘need’.
The older I get the more valuable my 9 siblings are to me.
When my Sister was dying with cancer..she never had a night spent in the hospital alone. Her husband never offered even once to stay. Her siblings were there day shift and night shift.
It’s just math Samiam. Check the average salaries of private school teachers. He’s doing very well in that arena if he’s making $50,000, not $100,00. Chances are good he makes well below $50,000.
Think about it, you say that things are tight with 6 kids making less than $100k. Double the number of kids and halve the income, and tell me if you still think that this family isn’t on assistance.
Again, I’d be happy to be wrong, but given the numbers, someone is going to have to show me. The benefit of the doubt is overwhelmed given the math.
I didn’t say that. Look at post number five.
Do you think your taxes would be lower if this family, in another state, had fewer children?
You’re doing exactly what the socialists want you to do ... raging over the existence of other people as if they, rather than THE GOVERNMENT, were taking something from you. They want to keep the peasants at each others’ throats, so they won’t notice who’s really got the power and the money.
Wrong.
With his age and experience, at a place like The Heights he's likely close to 100K teaching salary. You forgot (?) to include earnings from coaching etc. Did you actually read the article? You come across as somebody who likes to blather about things of which he is ignorant.
“I’m eldest- me just turning 60- in a family of 11 children!!!
Photos in the WAPO ( the WAPO!!!) article are priceless and indeed reminders. Mom had her brood of singles as well (as in no twins etc) inside 18 years. We thought that was something!
We did have a genetic oddity I think almost got us into the Guiness Book: 5 boys first followed by 4 girls (the poor first girl), then to boys. I’m fairly sure I encountered that the record was 5 boys then 5 girls.
Pray please for the health of my quite elderly parents who, thank God, remain in relatively good health.
I should add there are two other Catholic mothers of large broods (more than “eight is enough”) in this small town of 4000. They too have had remarkably good health, are not anywhere near overweight, look very well.
God is Good!
How stupid of me, I keep forgetting that, according to the liberal lexicon, condoms are the answer to just about everything.
Why don't you try answering my question. What EXACTLY should a poor woman do if she gets pregnant?
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